Improvement in sewing-machines



. 3 Sheets SheetL I. M. SINGER. Sewing Machine.

Patented Nov. 4, 1856.

3 Sheets-Shef 2. I. M. SINGER.

f Sewing Machine.

No. 16,030. Patented'Nov. 4, 1856.

3SheetsSheet 3. I. M. SINGER. Sewing Maching.

Patented Nov. 4, [856.

, stances, of which the following is a full, clear,

the accompanying drawings, making part of this specitieation, in whiehsent the material to besewed to the action 0f or hand catching enjratchet-teeth, whereby the'extent .of feed, motion, -1nay .be -,ad justcd UNITED STATES- PATENT OFFIC ISAAC llLSIXGER, OF NEV YORK. N. Y.

' Spe Lifieatlon forming part of Letters Patent No. 16,630; dated November, 4 1856.

To all whom 21!; may concern Be it known that I, ISAAC M. Smonreof the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain Improvements in the Machine for Sewing Seams in Cloth and other Suband exact description, reference being had to Figure 1 a front elevation of the machine; Fig. 2, a side elevation; Fig. 3, a longitudinal vertical section taken. in the plane of the axis of the main shaft and the needle; Fig. 4, a cross vertical section taken in the line A a of Fig. 2, and looking in the direction of the arrow; Fig. 5, a face view ofthe shuttle-carrier and the cam-groove attached to it, and Fig.6 a'side view of the teed-motion.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the iigures.

The firstparts ot'my invention consists in operating thcneedle by a crank-pin or roller on a rotating shaft acting in a cam-groove on the needle-carrier, whereby the required motions are imparted to the needle with much less extent of motion of the pin or rollerin the cam-groove, and consequently less frictionthan, if the cam-groove were on the shaft and, the pin or roller on the needle-carrier'; and the second part of my invention consists in projecting the operative pa rtot' the surtaceof the feeding" apparatus through the surface of the table on which the material to be sewed rests and moves, so tlltll'llie operative part of such feeding apparatus'may act on a portion of the under surface of the material to be teeth, and by which, also, I avoid the wear and liability to derangement incident to the use of a ratchet motion; and the last part'of my invention consists in "attaching the presser for controlling the 1naterial to be sewed toaslide or any equivalent therefor, so that the plane of its under surface shall alwaysbear the same relation to the plane of thetable,whetherthe material to be sewed be thick or thin, thereby avoiding the inequality of pressure which takes place when the presser is on an arm connected wit-h the table or with the frame by 'a fulcrum or hinge joint. l I In the accompanying drai vingsfa represents the table on which the material to be sewed is placed, and in which the shuttle and its mechanismand the feeding wheel are arranged, and to the top of which is secured the bracketpiece 0, having a projecting arm extending over thetableiin which is hung the main shaft 6. The forward end of the shaft 7) carries a wheel, (1, with a erank pin, e, which works in a canrgroove, f, formed in the needle-carrier j( to give the required reciprocating motions The needle-carrier works in ways it 71, attached to the front of-the arm 0,- and the needle 6 is attached to the lower end of the said carrier.

The forth of the cam-groove f .is peculiar, and will be seen by reference to Fig 4. The cranlapin c has its center'of motion at j in this figure, and must be assumed to be revolving in the direction of the arrow. Wlhen the crank-pin reaches the sudden offset 1, by continuing to revolve in the same direction it, travels back in the cam-groove, and thereby carries the needle up rapidly, and then in pass:

sewed, to give the required feeding motion to ing from the; point 1 to 2'it continues to move space the stitches, whi.le tl1c other portions of said material rest on slides on the table to feeder, the said table at the same time cover; ing and, protecting themechanlsm that opof my said invention consistsin imparting the t cedingvniotion to the feeding-wheel to prethe needle fo -spacing the stitches (by grip- .ping the periphery thereof, or .ofa rim there on, in contradistinction to the action of a pawl desired, lnstead 0f.

the carrier by a graduallyq'etarding motion until the parts get in the position represented by dotted lines, with the crank-pin at the upper dead-point. 7 The needle then begins to descend as the crank-pin travels along the grooves from the point 3 to 4, where the crankpin'by its continued. revolution begins to.

travel back along the inclined planefrom 4' to 5, forcing the necdledown and through. the

cloth; and at the pfointb thene edlehas been carried to the utmost-of its downward motion, and thenfro'm the point 5 to 6 the groove makes 'a' considerable angleto carrylnp tlie needle the required and. short distance .t'QLgiv'e thegslack; .1

for fo1'niing.the-'=l oop below the'inaterial t b sewed for the. entrance of .noseg or points 2 1&030

or shuttle, and then, finally, as the crank-pin travels from'the point 6 to 1, (this part of the groove in that position being concentric, or nearly so, with the crank,) the needle is retained in a stationary position to give the requisite time for the passage of the shuttle.

The needle'thread is on a spool, k, that turns on a pin attached to the upper end of the me. tile-carrier and moves up and down with it,

' and the thread passes through a guide on the end of ahelical spring, I, then through another guide, in, just above the needle i,.and then through the eye 0 of the needle, which is made onlya short:- distance back of the point thereof. As the spool is mounted on the needleearrier and moves with it in descendingto en ter the cloth, the needle vdoesislide on the thread, as it would have to do if the spool were stationary, and hence no chafing of the thread takes place during the downward motion of the needle, which is an important desideratum, particularly in sewing at a high velocity. From this it will be seen, as before stated, that the extent of motion of the crank-pin in the cam-groove is much shorter than if the camgroove (to give the same motions) were on the rotating shaft and the pin on the carrier, because in the latter case, to give a range of mo tion of two inches to the needle, the eccentricity of the cam from the axis of rotation would require to be more than two inches, whichwould give it a circuit of more than six inches; and by my improvement, to obtain the same r'ange'of motion, the length of eanrgroove re= quired is but about one-third of the circumference of a circle of two inches diameter gencrated by a crank of one inchthrow.

The cloth 1;, or other material to be sewed, is placed on the table, and is forced onto the pe riphery of a wheel, r, by which the feed motion is given, and the cloth is kept on the periphery ot' the wheelby a spring clamp or presser, s. The feed=wheel -r is placed below the table,with its shaft suitably mounted in a hanger, t, as represented, and the table is pierced or cut out of a sufiicient size to allow the periphery of the wheel to extend up slightly above the upper surface of the table, so that when the presser s makes pressure ontop of the cloth or other material to be sewed, it is compressed between the presscr and the periphery ol't'hc wheel and not onto the table, so that by turning the wheel 1' the cloth will be advanced to the ll'btllllltlldistance to space the stitches, while at the same time the surface of the table all around that part of the periphery of the wheel which is active forthe time being will keep the olot-htia t and smooth, and that portion of its surface beyond the wheel will act as a stripper toseparate the cloth from the surface of the feed-wheel, to which it would be liable to adhere by reason of the force with which it is pressed thereon when passing under thepresser s. The required motion is given to the ieedwheelby a friction spring-pawl, I, hinged to an arm,.11.,

which vibrates on the shallot the feed-wheel r. \Vhen the arm a is moved up, the springpawl binds and grips the periphery of the wheel and carries it around, but when moved in the opposite direction, the spring of the pawl yiclds, so-as not to bind or grip the wheel, and hence the wheel remains still during the back motion. The arm which carries-the pawl receives the'required vibratory motions from an arm, r, on arock-shaft, 11 which carries another arm, a", which is struck at every op I eration by one of two pins, 3 on. a shaft, 2, that receives motion from the main shaft by cog-wheels a a'. The arm a; isheld onthe roek-shaft by a temperscrew, 1/,so that by shifting the position of this arm relatively to the other arm, 0,- thc-extcnt'of feed motion can be increased or decreased at pleasure.

The'shaft which carries the pins that give the feed motion must be so gearedTrelatively to the crank'which operatesthe needle as to feed "the cloth iorwardfliust after the needle has been drawn out. From this arrangement it will be seen that, whether the motion of the arm a be great or small, it will act on the wheel by the gripping action of the springpawl, sothat by, changing the range of motion of the arm. any desired degree of motion can be given to the feed-wheel for the presentation of thecloth totheneedle for determining the spacing-of the stitches, and as the whole action'on the wheel is by gripping its periphery, the liability of derangement incident to the use of ratchet-teeth will be avoided.

The presser s is very smooth on its under surface, so as to make the least possible friction'onthe upper surface of the cloth or other material. lti'splacedjust over the periphery of the feedingwheel, and is attached to a. bar, 8', which is adapted to slide verticallythat is, in a line perpendicular to the surface of the table-fin one ofthepieees of metal which constitute one of the ways h of the needlecarrier. This presser-bar is surrounded by a helical spring, s", with one end bearing on thetop of the'presscr and the other against the lower end of 'the piece-h, so that its tension forces the presser down toward the periphery of the feed-wheels to make pressure on the interposed cloth or other material. In this way the presser is heldin the place required over the cloth without any side connections, which might be in the way of the movements of the material to be sewed, and as its motions an: at right angles to the surface of the table, however the. material to be sewed may vary in thickness, the plane of its under. surface will always bear the same relation to the plane of spring-arms, h h, that project upward from. the carrier, and these spring-arms have each a pin which enters a hole in the shuttle; oneneareach end, and as the carriermovesfalong with the shuttle vthe arms in succession pass by a cam or'swell, i, on the race,.placed just opposite the needle, bywhi'cheach arm is forced out so far as to draw the pin out of its hole in the shuttle; In tliisway, as the first arm passes the thread'the shuttle is being carried by the second, and before'the second is forced out for-the passage-of the thread the first hasIre-entered, Afterthe-needle-has been ear ried through the cloth, it is drawn partly back to make slack 'inthethread, and as the thread extends from the seamdown'aloiigthe surface of the needle,- and is bent to pass through the" eye of the needle,1it follows that themonient the needle begins to move back, the "thread bends out fromtheabodyof theheedle on the,

Shuttle side toform aspacejbetween it and i the needle, to insure the entrance of the point (or nose of-the shuttle, which is put in motion after this back motion of ,the needle begins-5 that is, the motions of the'needle'and the shuttle must be so timed that the point of the shut;

tleshall notxreach'the needle before the tar motion of the needle, for-without this the shuttle would not enter with certainty between the.

thread and needle. If the back motion ofthe' needle be not'suiiicient to make the requisite slack for thepassage of the body of the shuttle,'the' required quantity will bedrawn through the 'eye of the needle'bythe'passageof the shuttle: .When the shuttle has passed through, the needle is drawn up, which makes the tie,

the two threads being under tension to bind and complete the stitch. The cloth-is then moved forward and the operation repeated. The shuttle-carrier receives'the required reciprocating motion fron'na crank-pin, j,-(see Figs. 3 and 5,) on the shaft which operates the feed-motion. This e'i-ank-piliworksina camgroove on the carrienwhich groove isfor-med' of two sector-plates, Z and m, attached tothe shuttle-carrier, i'orininga groove for thecrank; pin, the plates being each quarter-circles of thepart I from the point 1 to 2, which-being equal radius-with the crank-pin, and the-two n being placed in reversed positions. .This is *shown in Fig. 5, partly by dotted lines. By reason of the form of this cam-groove, as the crank-pin revolves quarter of arevolution in the direction of the arrow, it moves against I do ,not wish-to-lie-understood my claim of invention to thcprecise'form and of the same radius with the crank, gives no motion whatever to the sh uttle-carrier, and this takes place while the needle is performing its operation #bnt when the crank-pin performs the next quartcr-revolutionit moves on the other part, m, of the groove from 2 to 3, carryingthe carrier and shuttle th 0 whole range of itsmotion in 'the direction of the arrow; and then'from the point 3 to 2 it moves in the reverse direction on thepart m of the groove, which in that position is concentric with the circle 1 generated "by the crank, and therefore not imp arting motion to the shuttle, and then, finally, in making the last quartenrevolution, thejcrankpin moves in the said cam-groove back from thepoint 2 to 1,'carryi ng;t11e shuttle'backirithe reverse direction ,to form the next stitch. In this way,'by means of. a crank,

the v shuttle is carried; alternately in opposite directions by a motion gradually accelerating, and then gradually retarding, corresponding somewhat with the ordinary crank motion, and v remaining at. restat the end of each motion a .sufficient length of time. to

ations of the'needle. r i c It-will be obvious from the foregoing that, the frameworkmay be varied; dllorinstance, whenthe machine is ,to be used for sewing seams in large pieces-of-cloth'and at consider complete the oper" able distancewithin the edge' asfiorexample,

in sewing sails or for sewing curved seams of large size, the arm 0 of; the braeket plece onthe'table should'be made of gr'caterlength, and

the shuttle machinery exteiided to a corre-' sponding' distance on the table;

as limiting construction of parts, "as these may be varied without' chan'ging the principle of my invem flom t i That I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent 'is 1*. 'Operatingthe needle: to give it the re quired reciprocating motions,;';substantially s'uchas described, by a crank-pi;n" orroller-ion a' rotating shaft, actiii g in a canigroove, sub stantially such as herein described, whereby thereq iired nptio'ns are imparte'dto thence-f die with much less extent of inotion of the crank-pin or roller in the cafn groove, and consequently less; frict-iomfthan ii the cam; groove were. on the'shaft and the pin or roller on.'the needle-carrier, as described-hf I I ,2.- Projecting the operative part of the surface of the feeding apparatus through the un face of the table, substantiallyfas; deseribedj,'so

that such feeding-surface act-on aportiou of the under urface 'oithe material to. be

sewed, to giye the rleqii'irfed Feeding motionftof spaee the stitches, While the otner'portions' oi the said material 'siide'on the tabl eg'whiohan swers 'the'ipun oseo'f strippi-ngfthe said plates rial from, the eedi -surface,v and to cover and protect the. mechanism which. onerates the feeder, as set'.forth, I

' 3.Imparti'ngthefeeding'nictiontothefeeder, to present the materialito'be sewed-to theaetmn of the needle for spacing .the'stit'ches, by gripping the periphery thereofi or any equivalent theref0r,-'hyegripping lever,substantially as described,'i ncoiitredistinction to the action E ;.zofepew1 or hahd eathing onto ratchet-teeth, whereby the extent of feeding motion maybe "Fadjusted' endwari'edto any degree, instead of being restrictedby the size 0fratehet-teeth, andwhereby, else, I-avoid thewear andliebjlity' to derangement incident to; the use of a --"1fetehet anetiq'n, as set forth.

4. 3111 combination with the feeder, attaeh' i-r lg thfef iresser, for controlling the mateyial to be sewed and fielding to the surface of the -feeder,t0 a slide or equivalent therefor, substentially as described, so that the plane of its under surface shall always bear the-same. relations to the freme of the tableina; line at 0'1: nearly at right angles to the line of theseam,

whether-the material to be sewed be thick Or thin, and for the purpose set'forth.

' ISAAC M. Witnesses: A

WM. H. BISHOP, CHAS. A. WILSON. 

